Living the simple life in Princeton has offered us rewards that I would like to share with all who care to stop in and see. From natures outdoor beauty to indoor cooking and everything in between. Welcome to my very special world in rural Wisconsin.

Summer view

A View From Our Deck

Friday, November 8, 2013

National Men Make Dinner Day

As many of you know, yesterday November 7th was National Men Make Dinner Day. There were 10 rules for the men, but the only two I cared about were cleaning up and making dinner without any help. Some other rules included candles and conversation. I don't need that, just anything on a plate and a clean kitchen. I even went to the store and got some fresh hamburger, just in case. I realize that I broke the rule of no help, but I wanted to give myself any advantage possible.

My husband volunteered at the hospital yesterday and got home about 4:30. I had the kitchen clean so he had a clean slate. I just sat and crocheted scrubbies and watched TV. Pretty soon it was 5:45 and I hadn't heard any activity in the kitchen. I went in and saw nothing so I heated up left over meat loaf (which my husband had made a couple days earlier), potatoes, corn and homemade apple sauce for my dad. I asked Mike if he wanted the leftover pork chop from the night before and he said yes and "throw in a baked potato for me". I put the pork chop in a pan on low and put the potato in the microwave. I then poured myself a bowl of Life cereal, sliced a banana on top with some milk and sat down to eat. Ok, so much for National Men Make Dinner Day.

Then about 8:00 I heard something going on in the kitchen. I went in and this is what I saw. He was preparing the ingredients for making the hamburger into something.

A combination of ingredients.

The first thing he did was weigh out the hamburger to exactly 4 oz.

5 quarter pound hamburgers to put in the freezer.

Then the rest of the hamburger went in a bowl with the other ingredients.

Meat loaf ready for the oven.

He does make a very good meat loaf.

He makes a great meat loaf and now we will have a few meals in the freezer for later. He uses a secret recipe taken from an old Workbasket magazine from 1979. He didn't serve me dinner tonight, but he prepared at least three meals for another time.

But, wait there is more. This morning I was doing my morning chores and low and behold here my darling husband comes with breakfast. He had two fried eggs, two bacon, a few hash brown potatoes and half an English muffin with jelly. He even brought coffee to go with it. So now we are changing November 8th to National Men Make Breakfast Day.

*Footnote*
This is funny and I was happy to get the help, but I'm hoping that my daughters' generation will not celebrate National Men Make Meals Day. This is not the olden days, where men go out to the fields and women keep the home fires burning. It warms my heart to see Dad's now days interacting with the children in a way that didn't happen so much the generation before. It's a choice, if you choose to separate duties, that's fine. If you both work and both are gone from the home, then the duties should be divided equally.